ruef design

what’s the big idea?

You may already be aware (or perhaps it’s quite obvious) that our company name, ruef, is taken from our founder, Zachary Ruef. It’s less about vanity or nepotism than it is about simplicity.

ruef is both a namesake and a nod to the saying, “all things under one roof.” And we won’t lie, the SEO benefits of the spelling variation are quite satisfying.

The reason ‘ruef’ is lower-cased is simple: to position the word as an entity – a noun, rather than a pronoun. Perhaps it’s pretentious, but we hope that someday “ruef” means “the act of portraying improvement” – improving efficiency or design or human betterment from a place of empathy.

It’s an immense goal to be sure, because it’s our big idea, and big ideas are supposed to be lofty – marks to which we can aspire.

We encourage all individuals and companies should pursue big ideas that improve humanity. Empathy will go a long way in making this world we share a better place.